April 1, 2010

"God hates fags"

Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, as some of you may know, is the name of the Westboro Baptist Church, the ragtag group of idiots and loons who "protest" at U.S. soldiers funerals. They claim that U.S. soldiers die in Iraq and Afghanistan because the U.S. military tolerates gays and lesbians. So, God is punishing them by killing them.

Michael Smerconish, columnist of the Philadelphia Daily News, sums up one such case: Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder died in combat in Iraq on March 3, 2006. At his funeral, his family had to endure the demented rantings of the Westboro Baptist Church, their placards that said "God Hates the USA," "Fag Troops" and "You're Going to Hell."

Al Snyder, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, sued Phelps and Westboro Baptist. He won a $10.9 million award from a jury that was later reduced by the court to $5 million. Westboro Baptist, of Topeka, Kansas, appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed the trial court's verdict. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

I am not a lawyer, and I don't know if an exemption to the First Amendment can be made for offensive speech at military funerals. That's a question for the U.S. Supreme Court.

I'm only interested in the tired old saw that religious people are more moral. I came across a video by the BBC about the Phelps family who heads this group. Granted, this is an extreme example. But anyone who believes anything religion tells him, on little or no evidence, is guilty of the same thing. It's only a question of degree. Some people who are religious are upstanding citizens. Some use their religion to justify killing others. People have been cherry-picking their respective holy books to justify anything, good or bad. Why not discard the holy books and just be good to everyone?

By the way, "Reverend" Phelps' estranged son Nate tells his story in an article called "Dad, the hateful preacher." He has a blog. And, "for those of you who suffer or who have suffered the effects of being raised in a fundamentalist environment, please join myself and Brother Richard at our Support group, "Life After Christian Fundamentalism."

2 comments:

God hates sin, not the sinner.Homosexuality is sin, but not the sinner.It is only sin if you are a believer that the Bible is true. It says this in the new and old testament.It is the same sin, as any other sex sin. There are many combinations.Once you get saved you are to seek God for deliverance of all sin. Sex sin is hard to overcome. But the Apostle Saint Paul say's some of you were Homosexuals!!!!! (But once saved rejected it) This is not saying they did not struggle with it, or even relapse. But they honored Gods word more than anything else.If Gods word say's it sin, I believe it is. However, I like anyone else need his mercy and grace or I will not make heaven my eternal home.